“She’s hitting the highlights,” Sophie said.

I finished up. “This guy, Jonah, was supposed to send most of what was inside the safe to my sister by way of a remailing service. My sister is probably frantic to find out why she never got it.”

“We know Wendy is still checking voice mail on the home phone—she’s deleting messages.” Teo changed to his best Southern drawl. “So tonight, she’s finally going to hear from Jonah.”

He sounded exactly like the renegade roofer. I clapped silently.

He grinned at me. “I’m going to block my number, then I’ll call the town house and leave a voice mail from Jonah.” He turned to me. “What about your mom?”

“She won’t answer. I told her not to.”

“Perfect.” He paused. “Ike, want to help?”

“Sure.”

“Be my drinking buddy. When I point to you, say something like ‘hurry up, Jonah.’”

Sophie looked proud to know us. “That’s why you chose this place. The band, the conversation.”

“And the food,” I added, “which will be here soon, so let’s roll.”

Teo pulled out his phone and punched in numbers. From my seat beside him, I could just hear Wendy’s recorded “leave a message.”

When Teo spoke, he sounded enough like Jonah that I had to stop myself from turning around to check.

“Hey, Wendy, this is... You know who it is. I’m out of town, but so are you.” He forced a nervous laugh. “You aren’t answering your cell phone, but luckily I got this number when I was, um, doing repairs at your place. Anyway, I got what you wanted. I sent you everything a while ago, but it came back in the mail, right when I was leaving.”

He stopped and pointed to Ike who leaned over the table. “Hey Jonah, hurry up!” He sounded appropriately tipsy. The guys were enjoying themselves.

Teo gave Ike a thumbs-up. “Anyway, the address you gave me was no good. Don’t worry, though, the stuff will be safe until I get home.” The band cranked up their volume, which was perfect.

Teo spoke louder. “Jeez, can you hear me? This place! I’ve been thinking. You’ve been gone a while, so the post office must be forwarding your mail. When I get home, I’ll mail the envelope to your house in Seabank and the post office can forward it. It’s one of those padded kind. You can’t miss it. I bet you’ll be happy to get it, one way or the other.”

I thought he was done, but he added the perfect touch. “I guess I won’t see you again, but remember when you get everything, you still owe me a little cash for those...repairs. You know where I live.”

Teo put his phone back in his pocket and picked up a shrimp.

“Bravo!” If the phone call worked, my sister, anxious for the passports and flash drive, would go to the post office, wherever she was staying, and fill out a change of address card. And in a couple of days, her mail would stop coming to the town house. I reached over and kissed Teo’s cheek. He put a shrimp in my mouth.